Many real-life casinos have featured in fictional films over the years, such as Caesar’s Palace in The Hangover.
But several famous movies are set in purely fictional casinos. Here are four of the most notable ones.
The Bank in Ocean’s Thirteen
In the hugely successful 2001 film Ocean’s Eleven, Danny Ocean and his gang of thieves rob three real Las Vegas casinos: the Bellagio, the MGM Grand, and the Mirage.
But in the third movie, 2007’s Ocean’s Thirteen, the team attempt to steal millions of dollars from the villainous Willy Bank, played by Al Pacino, at the fictional Banks Casino and Hotel.
The filming locations used for the Banks Casino’s interior were the real-life Vegas casinos the Bellagio and the Palazzo.
Casino Royale in Casino Royale
As any true James Bond fan knows, Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale was the debut novel featuring 007.
However, apart from the 1967 comedy film version of the same name starring Peter Sellers and David Niven, the 1953 book did not become a proper Bond film until 2006, when Daniel Craig took over as everyone’s favourite secret agent.
In the Casino Royale novel, the casino in which Bond takes on the evil Le Chiffre at cards was located in Northern France, but in the 2006 movie, the setting is changed to Montenegro.
Filming for the fictional Casino Royale actually took place in the Czech Republic, though. The town of Karlovy Vary was used for exterior shots of the Casino Royale, while the Grandhotel Pupp served as the movie’s Hotel Splendide.
You will have to wait to see whether Daniel Craig’s last outing as Bond, in No Time to Die, features more casino action, as it’s due for release in September.
In the meantime, you can enjoy playing casino games like poker, blackjack, and roulette, yourself at an online casino UK.
The Red Dragon in Rush Hour 2
The second instalment in Jackie Chan’s amazing Rush Hour series of films sees Chan’s Inspector Lee, accompanied by Detective James Carter, played by Chris Tucker, going to Hong Kong on holiday.
Only, when they arrive, they soon become involved with a murder case that appears to be linked to the Triad crime boss Ricky Tan.
One of the primary locations of 2001’s comedy-action Rush Hour 2 film is the exotic Red Dragon Casino, which features later in the movie when the protagonists return to the United States.
The fictional Las Vegas casino The Red Dragon, owned by the Triads, was actually filmed at the Desert Inn in Vegas. Filled with lions, acrobats, fireworks, and Asian décor, The Red Dragon is one of the most incredible fictional casinos you will ever see on the silver screen.
The Tangiers in Casino
Legendary director Martin Scorsese has made some of the most notable gangster films of the 20th and 21st centuries, and his 1995 movie Casino is no exception.
The epic crime film follows the protagonist Sam Ace Rothstein, played by Robert De Niro, who is asked by Chicago mobsters to oversee the operations of the Las Vegas Tangiers casino, which is backed by the Mafia.
With a superb supporting cast, including Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone, and its unnerving gritty realism, Casino is unquestionably one of Scorsese’s greatest ever motion pictures and it gets even more interesting when you learn that the script is based on a true story.
The fictional casino of the film, the Tangiers, was filmed at two Las Vegas locations. The defunct Landmark Hotel was used as the exterior of the Tangiers while the Riviera casino, which closed in 2015, provided the interior.
